Since Sue did a post on logos, I decided to try to find information about picture books. I found lots of information.
Before we go too far, I did find the top 100 picture books of all time. Since, we try to find other examples to use as inspiration, I thought it was fit to share the link with you. As I read through the list, it made me want to visit an elementary school to catch up on some reading. :)
Second, I found a blog post that discussed how children are not encouraged to read picture books once they hit a certain age. As soon as a student can read a chapter book, it is frowned upon for him/her to read a picture book. I found this interesting because I have found truth in the author's claim. In school, students are not encouraged to read what they are interested in and enjoy reading. Instead, they are pushed to read up to their reading level. The author also continues by asking the question "Why can't adults read picture books?" I agree that it should be encouraged to read things that are not as "cognitively intense." By looking at pictures with minimal text but vibrant images it can provide our brain to function in a different way. We have mentioned in other classes that when we receive an article or book we skim through it to look for pictures. How great would it be to have picture books on some of the more adult topics??
I think that images can be very powerful resources that can be used with all learners of any age. As always, there should be a balance of anything. Children can not read picture books forever; but, why not allow children and adults to use their imagination more by adding thought-provoking images?
My question to you: How can we find a balance between picture books and "academic - text intensive" books? Do you think that all information could be portrayed with images? Is there a place for picture books for adults as well? Do you think that adults would utilize picture books if they were more accessible?
Your post brought back a lot of memories Monica! I went through the list of books you offered and found out that my kids have some of these books themselves. Actually, I had one myself that I used to carry all around when I was a kid (it was translated into Arabic). I totally agree with the writer and you that picture book isn’t treated “fairly” these days. I myself struggle every time I read a story for my kids because as I am conditioned to look for the text only, my kids spend a lot of time trying to figure out the story just by looking at the pictures for a really long time and when they are done they ask me to read the text. At the beginning, I couldn’t understand why they are doing that but then one of them said that it makes the story more interesting! What a strategy…
ReplyDeleteTo answer your questions, I believe that your first two are related. In other words in order to create the balance between text and pictures, we first need to explore and understand what and how different pieces of information can be translated into images. In fact, I find Malamed’s book “Visual Language for Designers” to be a helpful resource for that matter. It provides different strategies from how to organize perception to how to clarify complex concepts. Surely, translating information into some sort of visual representation is not an easy task; yet, we now learned that the combination of pictures and text should result in better retention.
Certainly, adults can benefit from picture books! I believe even if adult books didn’t include images, adults tend to create their own images in their minds because it makes remembering information much easier. For example in the past, I used to look at type as something boring and redundant. However after the last few classes, I started to see images reflected by the font type used and in certain examples I couldn’t look at the presented information as a text because all I could see was the images reflected by the type font and size. That doesn’t mean everyone needs visuals because learning is personal and we all have our unique ways of twisting information to fit in our cognitive system. Personally, I am not ready just yet to completely replace words with images but with the emphasize we see today on visual literacy who knows what might happen in the future!
Having a 4 and 8 year old we have a lot of those books listed floating around our house right now. Also having an 8 year old I see the prejudice toward picture books in his schooling. It seems that they push chapter books, when he goes to the library he is told to choose a chapter book even if their is a picture book he is more interested in. What I find the most troublesome about this idea, that text is somehow better than image, is that our society has become extremely visual but we are not trying to prepare our children for this new visual world. I think we should allow our children to continue to use a mixture of visual and text information throughout their education.
ReplyDeleteI think that there should be more picture books for any learners regardless their ages. I believe that picture books have a place and should be encouraged for adults especially for those who have trouble reading and for people who are completely illiterate. I remember when I was in high school, I saw some adult learners who had trouble reading utilized picture books. And the books were very helpful for the adult learners. Well–designed pictures books may help us bridge the literacy gap by providing joyful reading for illiterate teens and adults. Personally, I enjoy reading picture books; it is nice to relax and the pictures entertain me.
ReplyDeleteMalizar I agree with you. You're never too old for Dual-Coding. Dual-coding helps with those who have certain learning disabilities as well. Picture books are especially effective in instruction manuals. Not only do they describe how something should be done, but it also shows a picture of how to complete the task. Well-designed picture book can be "read" without words.
ReplyDeleteAlthough most picture books are utilized for entertainment, I believe they should be used more for instruction and depending on the audience, it should follow the rules of color, depth, repetition, etc!
More picture books for adults? What a GREAT idea! I think that might be the entire purpose of the course. If you can PROPERLY select (or in most cases create) visuals that either supplement instructional text or replace it all together, then the need for text-heavy "chapter" books is eliminated. The reason that children are encourage to read chapter books, is not to learn about the topic presented in the book. The purpose is to learn how to read in general. I think that picture books for adults could be very effective for learning. Since the purpose of the book is not to teach adults how to read, but rather to have them understand the material presented, visuals and text should be coupled.
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